Sunday, November 16, 2014

Our Plein Air group went back to the same location this week, and I did intend to do a little more to last week's painting, but as the sky was cloudy I started another from a slightly different view

I made the trek into the city by train to discover what the Julian Ashton Sketch club was like, and now I know the routine will probably try and make it there again...
these are from the batch of 1 and 2 minute poses from Glenbrook on Friday

Thursday, November 06, 2014

started a plein air painting this morning with the Nepean/MTAS group by the old Methodist Church at Castlereagh, and spent quite a bit of the time talking to the caretaker of the Church about the history of the place, including this building which is the old schoolhouse built in 1878 and the cottage that went with it.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

An article in my ArtDaily newsletter
the other day, announced the upcoming auction of a Cy Twombly
painting, it stated that this masterpiece, which was housepaint on
board with chalk scribbles was expected to bring $35-$55 million US
dollars, and it caused me to ponder on the thoughts and
conversations I have about Art, the state of it, what it is and why
we do it etc.

Art is certainly not high on the agenda
of current governments, at least here in Australia, as Art programmes
and Art funding is progressively being cut or abandoned in place of
more useful and productive subjects that focus on the more important
matter of making money.

It does seem rather paradoxical that
while art is seemingly of little practical value to everyday life...
at the same time obscene amounts of money are being spent on art
which is out of all proportion to the quality of the work or actual
skill involved in producing it.

dictionary definitions of Art are ambiguous “the
quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic
principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary
significance”.

“Art has had a great number of
different functions throughout its history, making its purpose
difficult to abstract or quantify to any single concept. This does
not imply that the purpose of Art is "vague", but that it
has had many unique, different reasons for being created “

“Few modern scholars have been more
divided than Plato and Aristotle on the question concerning the
importance of art, with Aristotle strongly supporting art in general
and Plato generally being opposed to its relative importance”(Wikipedia)

The state of art today is a reflection
of the world that we live in, with its crazy values and priorities!

While many live in poverty, and
defenceless peoples are terrorised by evil men, we have become a
world of tribalistic hero worshippers paying fortunes for
entertainment. It seems that India can send a scientific rocket to
Mars for less than than it costs to produce a modern entertainment
film... or it could have bought a Rothko painting and had a few
thousand left over.

One of my thoughts on art is that it is
an essential part of the human experience, it is descriptive and
expressive, it is communication, it could bring beauty and
pleasure, awareness and thought and discussion.

Art is also work, and all work is
worthy of some reward, but that reward should not be out of
proportion with reality... and should not be the prime motivation for producing it..

In my opinion the works of Banksy, done in the form of graffiti, in public places for any to see, are better value than many daubings on boards... that the gullible are conned into spending a fortune for!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Thursdays is the day that the keen plein air painters from the Nepean and Macquarie Towns Art Societies get together at a pre-determined location for a bit of plein air painting, this week most of them have gone up to the Capertee Valley for a few days... but two of us still managed to meet at the lagoon in Richmond today for a bit of painting.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

I was compiling a more up to date list of some of the Life Drawing/Portrait groups and venues around the Sydney region that I might possibly attend... and in the process came upon this comprehensive list of life drawing venues around Australia!

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

as a natural penny pincher, and because I like to use a brand of paint for some colours that is not available in Australia, ( Vasari paints from New York ) it concerned me that I was wasting a lot of paint because it was hardening on the palette in between uses... so I devised a system where I have virtually no wastage at all nowadays. I have shown this to quite a number of people and have even set some up with it.

I bought some laminex offcuts in a neutral grey colour from a kitchen maker (cheap) and cut them to a size that fits neatly into a plastic A4 office container. (cheap)

I clip the flexible laminex palette to a larger palette to use, and
when I've finished painting put the whole unit neatly into the freezer
compartment of the fridge and it is fresh and ready for use whenever I
take it out... it's clean and with no waste.

I have one for portrait painting and one for landscape painting, and though it is not always practical to take one for plein air I can still preserve the paint onto it when I return to the studio.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Saturday's portrait group at the Richmond Art Shop was well attended... in fact it was a little bit crowded! I managed a 20 minute colour pencil drawing, a 60 or 80 minute oil, and then switched positions for a 35 minute oil sketch

Sunday, October 05, 2014

next weekend will be the final days for this year's annual exhibition at the Piggery Lane Studios, and Saturday will also be the day of the Hawkesbury Earthcare Centre Spring Fair ...this is a little oil sketch of the Earthcare Mudbrick building painted from the Piggery the other day.

Saturday, October 04, 2014

life drawing has dropped off round here lately due to a seeming lack of interest and I'm travelling a little further to get some much needed practice. I went into the city to attend some free sessions put on by a model friend who was helping aspiring models to 'give it a go'
this is a pencil sketch of a first time model

and a couple of Conte sketches from yesterday's regular Friday session at Glenbrook